The winner of today's "peak irony", or rather hypocrisy, award is easy: it goes to the Rockefeller Family Fund, a charity which exists only thanks to John D. Rockefeller's creation of the Standard Oil carbon-spewing behemoth (a predecessor to today's ExxonMobil) which over the past century has created billions in profits for the Rockefeller family and billions in tons of CO2 emissions, "proudly announcing" this morning that it intends to sell all fossil fuel exposure, and that it would "eliminate holdings" of ExxonMobil because the oil company associated with the family fortune has "worked since the 1980s to confuse the public about climate change."

The U.S.-based charity will also divest its coal and Canadian oil sands holdings.

This striking move is the result of the Fund's "green" metamorphosis. According to the charity, given the threat posed to the survival of human and natural ecosystems, "there is no sane rationale for companies to continue to explore for new sources of hydrocarbons."

Oh, now they tell us.

In response to the divestment movement, many oil industry leaders have argued that millions of people in the developing world would be condemned to darkness and poverty if society halted the burning of fossil fuels anytime in the next several decades, before there is an ample supply of cleaner energy sources. And considering the price of oil is so cheap currently that the research and development of so-called alternative, or clean sources of energy is completely uneconomical, it means that the kind, liberal folks over at the Rockefeller foundation would rather see Africa in the dark than suffer the immoral indignity of even a few more grams of CO2 emissions.

Today's move follows the launch last November by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of an investigation into whether Exxon misled the public and shareholders about the risks of climate change. At the time, the company said it has included information about the business risk of climate change for many years in its quarterly filings, corporate citizenship report and in other reports to shareholders.

Exxon Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson has openly talked about the reality of climate change. The company has said it has constructively contributed to climate research for years.

As early as 2008, members of the Rockefeller family called on Exxon to make governance changes and increase spending on alternative fuels. And then, in late 2014, another fund associated with the family, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), and several other philanthropies and non-governmental organizations said they would divest from fossil fuel-related investments.

Here is the best part: this whole "divestment" is nothing more than theater. This specific endowment runs a tiny $130 million in total assets. As for Exxon, its shares were down 0.4% on the day, less than the drop of the broader market.

So here is the real question: will the Rockefellers divest of their full energy holdings, kept in blind, family, and various other (offshore of course - nobody wants to pay taxes, not even green liberals) unknown trusts, due to their disgust with the "morally reprehensible" company created by their ancestor? The answer: of course not.

The Rockefeller Family Fund is proud to announce its intent to divest from fossil fuels. The process will be completed as quickly as possible, as we work around the complications of modern finance, which is increasingly dominated by alternative investments and hedge funds.

While the global community works to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, it makes little sense—financially or ethically—to continue holding investments in these companies. There is no sane rationale for companies to continue to explore for new sources of hydrocarbons. The science and intent enunciated by the Paris agreement cannot be more clear: far from finding additional sources of fossil fuels, we must keep most of the already discovered reserves in the ground if there is any hope for human and natural ecosystems to survive and thrive in the decades ahead.

We would be remiss if we failed to focus on what we believe to be the morally reprehensible conduct on the part of ExxonMobil. Evidence appears to suggest that the company worked since the 1980s to confuse the public about climate change’s march, while simultaneously spending millions to fortify its own infrastructure against climate change’s destructive consequences and track new exploration opportunities as the Arctic’s ice receded. Appropriate authorities will determine if the company violated any laws, but as a matter of good governance, we cannot be associated with a company exhibiting such apparent contempt for the public interest.

To operationalize this decision, the Board has instructed its advisors, effective immediately, to eliminate holdings of ExxonMobil, and all coal, and tar sands-based companies outside the portions of the portfolio managed by third parties, and to keep exposures for these three categories of investment below 1 percent across the entire portfolio. The Family Fund’s Finance Committee will soon be entering the second phase of its divestment work, which will entail seeking suitable alternatives to certain commingled funds now held. The field of Socially Responsible Investing is dynamic and growing and we are confident that a variety of options will soon emerge for mid-sized endowments such as ours.

Needless to say, the Rockefeller family has had a long and profitable history investing in the oil industry, including ExxonMobil. These are not decisions, therefore, that have been taken lightly or without much consideration of their import. But history moves on, as it must. Indeed, it is past time for all people of good will to do everything in their collective power to make our new path one that recognizes the deep interdependence between humanity’s future and the health of our natural systems.

"For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.” – From David Rockefeller’s “Memoirs”, (p.405)."

Exxonmobil...worked since the 1980s to confuse the public about climate change.

Back then, I believe they used to call it "global warming", which turned out to be COMPLETELY WRONG. Then they had to change the name to "climate change". Climate change is just a means to "control the means of production via the means of combustion "

Acid rain wasn't acidic enough for the wacko property grabbers, they finally figured out that we have to put sulfates in gumbo soil in the South for plants to grow. Sulfates are partly from sulfuric acid from the sulfur in sour hydrocarbons. The tax exempt foundations, such as the Rockefeller and Ford, formed the EPA as a destruction of private property and to exclude the smaller more entrepreneurial companies that will knock the stodgy mega-corps dicks in the dirt. Now, the carbon credit bullshit is right out of the giga-corps such as Soylent Green. No small companies can compete (that's the point).

BTW, the coal fired plants and the refineries, gas processing plants, etc. have sulfur recovery units to extract the sulfur.

Meanwhile, the sick education system keeps pumping little Johnny and Suzy full of bullshit. Even students at Arizona State believed Watters when he asked if the US Senate should go ahead and consider the SCOTUS nominee, L. RON HUBBARD, and not wait for the election shift change. Of course those dumbasses said yes!!! We are so fucked, it ain't worth saving.

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is a bought off AG who fixed the case against the thieves behind stealing the World Trade Center trademarks that the New York - New Jersey Port Authority had until a top PA executive bought the rights for $10 in 1989. Then Port Authority executive director Stephen Berger approved this crooked deal, one of many on his plate, including later authorizing the shutdown and demolition of St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan so Berger's real estate accomplices could build a high rise apartment house on the site. Berger got his start working for Governor Hugh Carey, a tool of the Mafia. Carey's brother, Martin Carey, was the front man as owner of the Vantage Gasoline stations on state roads, with the real owners being the Gambino crime family. When Carey wasn't renting out his Newport, R.I. mansion to the mob for filming hard core pornographic movies. Schneiderman carries on the Carey tradition, a crooked AG who who has sold out his office to the highest bidders.

The original Rockefeller was an esoteric Bible Thumper. Read up on him. He was quite a piece of work. He was a Stiff, a regular "Romney without the charm (and that's saying something). Compared to him, JPM was ethical and a Team Builder. Are you getting the JPG?

They are really pushing the "catastrophic climate change" (previously known as catastrophic global warming) meme, now aren't they. This is akin to saying that String Theory is settled science and physics in that both String Theory and Climate Science share the utter inability to make an accurate prediction.

The timing of this release from the Rockefeller foundation seems strange as we have just experienced a huge up move in the U.S. stock market that was driven by the energy stocks. The market is due for a rest here but this up leg is not finished yet. The market will continue up after around 15 April (everybody has to pay their taxes first), and it will continued to be led by the energy stocks (those darn terrible polluting things (not all of them are polluting)). For more commentary and stock market insights, see http://marketscope.ca/

The man literally looks as if he has blood dripping from his eyes. It wouldnt surprise me to find out - years after his death - that he was a closet cannibal. Him and Soros are in the top 5 most evil men alive

Yeah, well, it's just too little, too late. We have already hit 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees centigrade) above the 100 year average so for all intents and purposes, we are done. You don't just stop the trends in natural systems that easily, they have inertia and lives of their own. I'm not sure we could fix anything even if every single internal combustion engine in the world was shut down immediately, although it would clearly help. The Rockefellers are just being cynical and trying to avoid a more unpleasant fate.

The bigger problem is that there is still a substantial porition of the world's population (around 25%) who will deny and deny and deny that this problem is man made until their children burn to a crisp from solar radiation, then they will 'demand' that something be done about it, right away!

Well, so sorry Charlie, it just doesn't work that way, so bend over and kiss.

Here we go, what do you think would be the "average global temperature" if the reporting stations in say, Siberia, went off line...a rise or a lowering? The Soviet Union had manned stations they could no longer afford to man.

How about putting ground stations next to air conditioning exhaust or parking lots with idling vehicles in the summer...anything obviously wrong with "that data"?

Do you think masking the medieval warming period was a good idea? Are you of the opinion that forest rangers should pick up every rotting log & stick to prevent the escape of CO2 into back into the atmosphere & quarantine it...wood? How about deer farts? Volcano's?

In your neck of the woods? I drove down to the seashore and stood on a rock and looked around. I didn't notice the waves being any higher than what I remember them being the last time I was there, so I declare scientists are full of shit and there is no such thing as climate change.